My stomach tightened. “What?”
“That you used your entire savings,” he said quietly. “The money you worked three years for. For your modeling dream.”
I stared. “How…?”
“Your mother told me,” he admitted, voice thick. “Sonia… why would you do that for a child you didn’t know?”
I looked down at the grass, remembering the hospital hallway, the screen, the number that matched my dreams.
“Because I know what it feels like to be helpless,” I said softly. “Because someone once helped my mother and me. And because… he was just a child.”
Michael swallowed hard. “Thank you for loving my son when I wasn’t there.”
From then on, we talked more. Shared meals. Quiet laughter. Long conversations while David played nearby.
My mother noticed before I admitted it to myself.
One night she asked, “Sonia, do you love Michael?”
I almost dropped my comb. “Mama…”
She smiled gently. “Time will tell.”
Two days later, Michael asked me to come to his study.
An envelope sat on the table.
“Open it,” he said softly.
My hands trembled as I tore it open.
Congratulations. You have been accepted as a talent in the Royal Crest International Modeling Academy.
My breath caught. My eyes blurred.
